The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports the arrest Friday evening of a Clarinda man following a traffic stop. At 7:15 p.m. Deputies conducted a traffic stop at Highway 48 and 270th Street. As a result of that stop they arrested 29-year-old Ryan Joel Kaleb Christie of Clarinda for Driving Under Suspension. Christie was taken to the Montgomery County Jail and held on $300 bond.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa House has given final approval to a bill that immediately removes the time limit for filing criminal charges against people accused of sexually abusing a child. During House debate, Friday, Representative Cherielynn Westrich of Ottumwa spoke publicly for the first time about the abuse she suffered as a child.

“It was only as an adult that I was finally able to come to terms and to talk openly about this. I even had to write down my statement because it’s emotional and it’s hard to face,” Westrich says. “…I think we need to support those victims who find the courage to speak out, who find the courage to come forward no matter how long it takes them.” Westrich says this law change gives victims a chance to get justice.

Cherielynn Westrich

“As a small child, I was sexually abused by a babysitter. It was something that I felt a lot of shame for. I was very confused. I was afraid to speak out, but I told my parents, but I wasn’t believed — at that time,” Westrich says. “They’ve since come back and apologized. My mother has cried many nights that she didn’t believe me.” Westrich says as a teenager, she was part of a group who were supporting a friend who had been sexually abused and the memories of her own abuse returned. And her siblings remembered being the babysitter locking them out of the house so he could be alone with her.

Westrich asked her colleagues to think about all the victims of child sex abuse. “One in five girls and one in 20 little boys are sexually abused,” she said. “How many perpetrators is that, that get away with it? That’s a lot of perpetrators. That’s a lot of children that are being hurt.” The legislator who spoke next thanked Westrich for having the courage to tell her story in a public forum and then expressed the hope it would inspire other victims to come forward and press charges.

Under current state law, child sex abuse victims must contact authorities before their 33rd birthday to file criminal charges or sue their abuser. The bill only deals with the statute of limitations for criminal charges. While the bill passed on an 84-to-two vote, critics argued it’s time to lift the time limit on civil lawsuits as well, so victims can sue institutions that knew about child sex abusers, but did not act to prevent them from targeting other children.

Sheriff’s officials in Montgomery County report the arrest Friday evening, of 29-year-old Kaleb Christie, of Clarinda. He was taken into custody following a traffic stop on Highway 48 at 270^th Street, and charged with Driving Under Suspension. Christie was transported to the Montgomery County Jail and held on a $300 bond.

The driver of a semi tractor-trailer complained of shoulder pain, after the rig he was driving rolled over into the north ditch, off Interstate 80, early this (Saturday) morning. Dispatch reports had Anita Rescue called to the scene at the westbound 66-mile marker, at around 1:55-a.m.  A Cass County Sheriff’s Deputy was the first to arrive at the crash site.

No other details are currently available.